New Year, New VidMob

Month: December 2015

With the year coming to a close and the new one fast approaching, we’ve been thinking a lot lately about not only how far we’ve come but, more importantly, where we hope to be in the year ahead.

Given that this time last year VidMob was basically just an idea, we look excitedly towards 2016 to see how we’ll change, grow, and evolve even further. Because we want our community to play an active role in shaping the development of both our app and Edit Suite, we wanted to share with you a little forecast about what we’re working on in 2016. We hope that this will not only give our community something to look forward to, but will also allow you to think thoughtfully about how we can build this platform to really work for you.

As a company enthralled with video and video editing, we see great potential in the untapped market of the millions (literally) of smartphone users that either already are or are capable of capturing great video content—meaningful video content that could become that much more meaningful with a talented video editor’s touch.

In fact, it’s this future potential that gets us most excited about 2016: to spread the word about VidMob with the hopes of changing the very way we capture and remember our lives. Just how apps like Instagram changed the way we take and share photos, or the way Uber changed the way we get around town, we too hope to change the video atmosphere by empowering anyone with a smartphone to capture their lives in video and to connect those people with talented video editors excited to help craft their stories.

As we’ve learned in the past year, making great change takes time. Building an idea into a platform and a concept into a community didn’t happen overnight. Turning an untapped market into a reality by evolving consumer behavior won’t happen overnight either, as we’ve learned in the short month since we’ve launched. Instead, tapping into this market and encouraging smartphone users to look at how they capture their memories differently, is the biggest uphill battle we’ll likely face in 2016. Yet it’s a critical one.

Luckily for us and those who know the power of video, all it takes is one video to make this fundamental change. One video to turn those millions of smartphone users into regular, active video creators that will bring in as many jobs for our editors as Uber has drivers, or Instagram has trending hashtags.

So here are a few of the ways we’ll be working in 2016 to make these changes happen. To bring in lots and lots of work that would’ve never existed otherwise. To build something amazing, together.

Collaboration: We’re working hard in 2016 to improve the collaboration functionality of our app to make the experience for all who collaborate as exciting, fun, and, well, collaborative as it currently is for the project owner. Thanks to a lot of our early user feedback, we hope that these improvements will help make every user’s experience with VidMob feel more connected. Additionally, we hope that these improvements will give new users and collaborators a sneak peek into the process and encourage them to make their own awesome videos. The changes will include things like collaborator group chat, cost sharing, the ability for collaborators to view and comment on drafts, the ability for project creators to post a “brief” for collaborators, and much more.
MobFeed: Like Instagram’s “Explore” feature, we too want to show off and promote the most buzzed about videos in order to not only promote the great work of our editors, but allow people to create viral collaboration projects. To get this where it needs to be, we’ll have to move away from the current simple feed to a display schema where we can add an editorial point of view. We think this will make the MobFeed more fun, more useful, and better at highlighting editors so that consumers can ‘favorite’ them for future work. As part of this redesign, we’ll also add the ability to highlight weekly “best of” videos for each category, promote public collaborations, and much more.
Web Interface: While VidMob will always be a “mobile-first” product, we realize that many of our users also have media on their home computers. And not all of them use cloud accounts like DropBox. So we plan on rolling out a web interface, which we expect to be equally integral as our VidMob Pro service expands (see below for more on VidMob Pro).
Android Version: We expect this sometime in Q2 of 2016. Now all smartphone users can get in on the action!
Consumer Music Review: VidMob has licensed over 100,000 tracks for people to use in their videos. But today, only the editors can preview and search through that library. We’re working on a way for consumers to browse this catalog on their own, and then make recommendations to their editors.
Enhanced Manual Bidding: We have heard MANY requests from our editors that they want to make manual bids. And while we remain convinced that auto-bids are the best tool for finding work on our platform, we do recognize that there will be certain situations where a manual bid makes sense—for example, if a consumer has already worked with an editor and wants to hire her again, he could just ping her for a manual bid on his next project. This puts the editor in a position of not only being likely to win that bid (and thus hopefully not waste time on unwinnable bids) but also helps to connect the consumer and the editor in a relationship with greater visibility.
VidMob Pro: We’ve touched on this in the past, but it’s such an important part of our future that we thought we’d highlight it again. In short, this is the first of our product expansions (like Uber’s expansion to offer Uber X, Uber Black, etc.). To-date, most of our projects have been consumer projects. But over time, we expect the majority to come from businesses looking to fill their social channels regularly with the content they need now (and forever after).
VidMob Now: More to come on this front in 2016…but you can probably make a good guess based on the product name.
Certifications and Visual Search: This is a feature that we’re actually really excited about—the ability for editors to ‘level up’ into new credentials and badges that will expand their desirability. For example, this might include a GoPro-certified editor, or someone who has received ten or more 5 star ratings. Over time, users will be able to easily search based on the specific badges, certifications, and credentials that matter most to them.

This is just a peek into what’s coming down the pipe. What do you think? Now do you understand why we’re so excited for 2016? Here’s to a happy New Year for all, made all the happier through the amazing power of video!

While this past month has been an intentionally quiet one, we’ve still had a few rather exciting happenings. So, before we give you some much-requested statistics on winning bid prices and project averages, let’s take a peek at the past month’s big highlights:

The 30-second television commercial, once a cornerstone of the iconic advertising professional, has lost its relevance in today’s world. It is fated to become a relic just like cassette players, dial telephones, and VCR’s.

As depicted in Mad Men, TV commercials had their heyday in the 1960s when TV was the main form of advertising and consumers gathered around the TV at the end of each day. A very different time, there were no emails, text messages or social networks to keep up with. There was a clear delineation between work and home life as people were not connected to work in the evenings.

With media outlets so fragmented: subscription services, social media, cable, DVR’s, and the web, agencies are struggling to create new business models to adapt. Many consumers are now watching programming on their smart phones and tablets. The average American watches 55 minutes of programming on their PCs or mobile devices per day. (Advertising Age)

Consumers are now time-shifting so they can watch shows on their terms uninterrupted. People don’t want to be interrupted by advertising. They want to engage with it on their own terms, when they’re in consumer mode and thus in the proper mindset to listen to an advertised message.

So then, what sort of brand message is appropriate today? What can a brand do to get its message across to consumers in this new media environment without giving up the massive reach that TV commercials can bring?

The answer isn’t fully yet clear, but one place to start is branded content or native advertising. By sponsoring programming the viewer might want to watch purely for its entertainment value, the brand message does not feel so obvious. The brand message must seem natural and relevant to the content of the site or channel. The emphasis here is on genuine entertainment value and on adopting the voice of the site, or the network the program is showing on. In a strange twist of fate, this move towards branded content is in many ways a return to the roots of broadcast television. Ever wonder why daytime dramas are called “Soaps”?

Perhaps the most interesting new use for video messaging is in a Brand’s social feeds. These platforms are used differently than television. On channels like Facebook and Twitter, the 30 second add makes little sense. Brands don’t need a single piece of content that they can run for a year. They need a new piece of content every single day. Forever. Given this new reality, the natural question is, “How can we cost-effectively create professional content every single day.”

Statistics regarding video are staggering!

The average internet user spends 88% more time on a website with video (Source: Mist Media)

According to Forbes, 59% of executives would rather watch video than read text.

According to Forrester Research it is 50x easier to achieve a page 1 ranking on Google with a video.

Enjoyment of video ads increase purchase intent by 97% and brand association by 139% according to Unruly.

Having video on the landing page of your site makes it 53% more likely to show up on page 1 of Google. (Source: Mist Media)

Businesses small and large now have the power of making great content internally using their smartphone and their internal resources. Using employees and passionate customers will make for great authentic content.

VidMob has now solved a challenge of what to do with this raw content. VidMob connects the great content sitting on your phone and connects you to professional editors who can skillfully craft your story the way you want it to be told.

Thank you so much for taking the time to set up your profiles and auto-bids! Everyone is doing a great job, and VidMob users have been ecstatic with the results so far. To help you maximize your ability to get new jobs, I have a few additional tips to help you optimize your profile for our bid-sorting algorithm.

Properly Categorize Your Portfolio Videos.

In our research, clients are more likely to select an editor who has a portfolio video similar to the project the client is trying to make. Essentially, having a wedding video in your portfolio (categorized as a wedding video) will make you more attractive to a client making a wedding video. That is why we added categories to your portfolio videos.

Intelligently Customize Your Portfolio Videos.

Along the same lines, certain times of the year are better for videos in certain categories than others. For example, with Thanksgiving a few weeks ago and Christmas coming up, two of our most popular categories are currently Family/Kids and Holiday. In January, we anticipate Travel being a popular category, and the spring should see Weddings and Nature/Outdoors videos picking up. And our most consistent category? Business. All businesses need video to capture their audience’s attention online. So if you’re comfortable with more commerical or content marketing work, definitely select this category. For now, these are our best guesses, but we’ll make sure to let you know when we see surges in certain categories.

Publish Your Portfolio Videos to the MobFeed.

The MobFeed is part of our consumer-facing app that lets clients look through great videos from VidMob editors to help them get inspiration. A user can “favorite” an editor, and that editor will appear much more frequently for that client. The more videos you have in the MobFeed, the better your chances of being seen and favorited.

Our response from clients and editors alike has been amazing! We want to keep evolving VidMob into the best site and app it can possibly be for all of our users. If you have any ideas, suggestions, comments, or criticisms, please reach out to us at support@vidmob.com.

Meet Chef AMax, the wonderfully charming pastry-chef-extraordinaire who earned her stripes in the kitchens of per se and Eleven Madison Park to bring to you the finest in sugary creations. And now, she’s starting her very own web series!

To help her kick off what we can only hope will be a catch-fire new series, we’re helping Chef AMax celebrate Star Wars the best way she knows how—with food. Glorious food. Or, well, I guess we should say cake. A six layer cake (yes, yes, that’s one layer for each episode).

Want to know what goes into making a cake with six layers that tells the tale of each Star Wars episode? Well, you’re in luck. Because Chef AMax is going to be teaming up with The MobSquad to live stream the entire experience. You read that right. Her and our MobSquad will be walking you through every step you opt to tune in for!

And if that tantalizes your taste buds, then you’ll be sure to enjoy the many guests appearances we’ve got in the works to help celebrate the release of The Force Awakens and Chef AMax’s upcoming web series launch—aka five full days of full-on, cake-licious streaming with surprise guests popping in and out throughout the entire event.

Did we mention it gets better? We’re also starting a new, open collaboration Star Wars project to help celebrate, too. Because, if Chef AMax is getting ready for The Force Awakens with a layer cake live stream, then we just have to know what it is that the rest of our VidMob community is doing to prepare! So, if you too have some exciting projects in the works, have a favorite scene you’ve been planning to reenact, a character you want to memorialize, or any other “I’m getting pumped for Star Wars” event coming up, then we want to see it. To join our open collaboration and share what it is that’s getting you amped for the 18th, keep an eye on our social media channels for the share link.

So why all this? For just a movie? Well, for starters, Star Wars is not just a movie(s). Like what we’re trying to build here at VidMob, it’s representative of an incredibly powerful, passionate community. It’s artists and visionaries and creatives and quirks—and we love how it brings people from all corners of the earth together because of something that moves them.

And while we can’t bring people from all corners of the earth into Chef AMax’s kitchen for the live stream, we can bring them from very different walks of life. With stories to tell. With art to create. With celebrations to share. And we want as many people to get in on it as possible! Because that’s what makes anything collaborative worth doing.

To submit to our open collaboration and join Chef AMax as she walks you through the wonderful world of Star Wars (sugar-butter-and-cream-style), be sure to mark your calendars for Sunday the 13th when it’s all set to go down: Chef AMax will be kicking off the livestream promptly at 12 pm EST and we’ll be sending out share links to join in on our Star Wars open collaboration.

The halls are decked, the bells are jingling, and the holiday celebrations are officially in full gear. So if you’re panicked about how you’ll get all your gift giving done before the New Year’s upon us, we have the perfect answer: Give the gift of video!

There’s a reason why we all love a good video (especially when it’s of the ones we know and love): video has the power to transport us to another time and another place. And for those loved ones who live far away, have gone off to college, or who you simply can’t get enough off, video becomes like a form of time travel with them. How? Well, it puts us right back into the arms of family when we’re homesick, brightens a wintery day with memories of a beach trip, and makes us belly laugh again and again. Video is a powerful thing! And it makes for an incredibly powerful gift—especially when you’ve found a talented video editor who will love your footage as much as you do to help you craft the perfect story.

Here are our top 3 reasons why we think video makes the perfect gift this holiday:

1. It’s one-of-a-kind: Your memories are as unique as you are. So sharing the ones you’ve already captured on your iPhone, GoPro, or other video recording device means there’s nothing else in the world like it. How cool is that? Your video gift is truly an original.

2. It’s truly thoughtful: Let’s face it. Gift giving can be hard. With all that pressure to show your caring thoughtfulness, it’s easy to get stressed out and wind up just picking a gift card (no judgement, we’ve totally been there). But gift cards are a dime a dozen. A personalized video, however? Now that’s chalk-full of special memories you’ve shared with someone. And that…that’s bound to result in lots of holiday joy.

3. It’s easier than going to the mall:You can create a video gift from your couch, the plane, your bed—anywhere that you’ve got your phone and a wifi connection. Which (we think!) totally beats waiting in those massive lines at the mall. Need we say more?

And the best part? A video gift can be whatever you want it to be—and it’ll be all the more rare and special for it. It will be the one thing you can give this year and know no one else can duplicate (which means no need to burden your loved ones with returns or regifting!). And it’s something your loved ones can cherish for this holiday season and beyond.

Already checked off your shopping list (you lucky dog, you)? Don’t forget that video also makes for a great holiday card, too! To see how our founder is wishing his friends and family a Happy Holidays with video this year, click the image below.